What Can U.S. Universities Do About a Student Stampede in Johannesburg?

What Can U.S. Universities Do About a Student Stampede in Johannesburg? By ANDREW C. REVKIN A sad development in South Africa provides fresh support for my shift in this blog toward exploring ways universities can help create a global network for sharing and shaping ideas — what I’ve taken to calling the “Knowosphere .” Adrian De Kock/Associated Press Prospective students darted through crowds at the gates to the University of Johannesburg. Read the coverage of a deadly student stampede that just took place as thousands of applicants for hundreds of slots converged at the gates to the overburdened University of Johannesburg. To me, there is nothing more tragic than seeing young people who are already eager to learn denied that chance — whether through inequity created by poverty or simply, as in this case, the lack of infrastructure. (I had that same feeling when I first s...